Phoenician Migrations and the Making of Greek Societies in the Ancient Mediterranean
Denise Demetriou Professor & Gerry and Jeannie Ranglas Chair in Ancient Greek History, University of California, San Diego
While historians have paid attention to mobility in the ancient Mediterranean, they have focused more on large-scale processes and institutions and less on the people who were moving. This talk will discuss several examples of Phoenician immigrants in Greek states from the fourth to the second centuries BCE. It will suggest that if we include immigrants in our histories of the ancient Mediterranean we can: give voice to a large demographic that has been largely ignored and uncover the personal experiences of immigrants; we can look at how their contributions and innovations shaped the societies they joined into the polities we are familiar with; and we can explore familiar notions of citizenship, politics, and religion, from new perspectives.
